It is necessary to orient electrical components for a variety of purposes in modern technology. One major area in which components commonly have to be oriented is in the application of the components to substrates, for example printed circuit boards, in the assembly of electronic circuitry, or for example in positioning "chips" for further operations for example wire bonding. In the handling of electronic components, it is essential for many operations that the components be precisely positioned in a desired orientation, for placement at designated locations in a desired orientation. Many machines have been proposed for accurately placing components on substrates. Some previously known machines have included so-called pick-up heads by which components are picked from a component supply and placed in a desired position and orientation on a suitable substrate. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,135,630 and 4,290,732 both describe machines for picking up electrical components and placing the, in desired orientations, at desired positions on a suitable substrate. The pick-up heads of the machines described in each of these U.S. Patents have means by which the components are held on the pick-head, viz. a vacuum or suction tool, and so-called pawls or fingers by which the components are positioned accurately in correct orientation on the tool. The machines of this type are capable of very precise positioning of components of appropriate size and can be arranged to handle a variety of different components, for example so-called flat packs, S.O. style transistors, leadless chip carriers and the like, as well as "chips". Such machines have been found to be fairly satisfactory in handling components in many respects, but in handling "chips" which are generally extremely fragile, the gripping of the chips between opposed pairs of pawls, fingers, tweezers, or jaws (various names by which the relevant instrumentalities are commonly called) has led to an unacceptable high rate of damage to the chips, for example by cracking or chipping out of a piece of the "chip".